Short
overview of new book on “Case-law
of the European Court of Human Rights
on Freedom of Religion and Belief”
by Roman Maranov

This book represents
Russia's first Russian-English bilingual
collection of case law from the
European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
As we know, the results of judgments
passed by the ECHR have not officially
been translated into the Russian
language, partially due to the fact
that the official languages of the
Convention and the ECHR are limited
to English and French. Therefore,
we can only write in reference to
the authentic translations of such
texts from either one of the Court’s
two official languages into Russian.
Nonetheless, in Russia, this legal
work has not yet been given the
attention it deserves by Russian
authorities. While decisions made
in reference to cases against Russia
are, more or less, systematically
translated into Russian, decisions
made regarding other country signatories
of the Convention are translated
very selectively. In addition, a
large number of decisions made in
the 1970s-1990s prior to the reform
of the Court and the Commission
have also been largely disregarded
on the part of state authorities.

The main purpose of this publication
is to provide a useful search tool
with respect to ECHR case law for
readers and those interested in
the subject regarding Article 9
of the Convention. This guide includes
coverage of 75 separate cases, including
the transcriptions of 39 decisions
and judgments on cases reviewed
by the former Commission on Human
Rights and the ECHR in the 50 years
that these human rights institutions
have existed and pursued issues
related to the freedom of conscience.
Since Article 9 is closely related
to Articles 10 and 11 of the Convention,
this book also includes decisions
made in accordance with Articles
10 and 11, which have had a large
impact on the formation of judicial
case-law on issues connected to
freedom of conscience. The "card
index" is a set of cards that contain
a short description of the characteristics
of each of the 75 selected cases.

We do not start by presupposing
that readers, including lawyers,
will have enough time to read this
whole edition front to back (or
even this preface). We assume just
the opposite: given the high pace
of modern life and the growing number
of judicial precedents set by the
ECHR, the main task is namely to
facilitate the effective and rapid
search for the “right” judicial
decisions in question. This guide
is designed in such a way that,
of the total number of judicial
rulings included herein, if one
needs to refer to just one specific
case, it may be found in a very
quick manner.

Nonetheless,
it is worth mentioning that no collection
of judicial practice and policy
on the part of the ECHR can serve
to replace the so-called HUDOC,
an electronic database that contains
all decisions and judgments made
by the ECHR. While HUDOC is irreplaceable
when the reader knows beforehand
exactly what decision or judgment
he needs to find, either by its
name or its number, this book is
preferable in terms of becoming
familiar with judicial practice
on a concrete theme, for instance,
with respect to determining the
approach to be taken in preparing
complaints (in our case, according
to Article 9).

There is another
argument that weighs specifically
in favor of a bilingual version
of the publication of decisions
of the ECHR. Since the decisions
and rulings on cases are published
in English (and French to a lesser
extent), difficulties surface with
respect to their translation into
Russian and in synchronizing the
languages, firstly, due to the specifics
of the English language itself,
and secondly, due to specific terminologies
that cannot always be accurately
translated into Russian, as several
variants in the target language
exist and the equivalent concepts
in Russian legal theory have not
yet been developed.

Since
Russian jurisprudence lacks established
terms that adequately correspond
to these expressions, everything
ultimately depends on the translator,
who may, to some extent, personally
inbue this term with hardly noticeable
nuances that nevertheless do, more
or less, accurately convey the meaning
of the expression in question.

This publication is focused
on those cases that have been reviewed
by the now-defunct Commission on
Human Rights and the ECHR throughout
the 50 years of these institutions’
existence and active role in the
international protection of human
rights in relation to the freedom
of conscience.

In light
of the above-mentioned reasons,
the ECHR decisions included in this
book are herein published in two
languages – English and Russian.
The Russian text should help its
readers to quickly familiarize themselves
with the decisions and rationale
therein and, if necessary, to learn
the wording of these particular
decisions (keeping in mind that
they have been translated by different
translators). This publication also
offers flexibility in that the reader
may easily transfer to referring
to the original English text in
parallel. From our point of view,
this arrangement presents the most
efficient option in addressing the
need to gain a quick understanding
of the decisions and grasp the usage
of terminology and expressions required
when preparing complaints for submission
to the ECHR.